


A Will Too Strong To Be Broken

by emblemscribe



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Hurt Steve Rogers, Hurt Tony Stark, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Torture, Kidnapping, M/M, Not Captain America: The Winter Soldier Compliant, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POV Alternating, POV Steve Rogers, POV Tony Stark, continuously being edited
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-29
Updated: 2021-01-07
Packaged: 2021-03-07 03:09:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,079
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26180017
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emblemscribe/pseuds/emblemscribe
Summary: A mission goes wrong and HYDRA finally kidnaps the Captain. But what they want from him is not an easy choice and the pace by which they’re hurting him is brutal; even for a super soldier.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Natasha Romanov, Minor or Background Relationship(s), Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Comments: 15
Kudos: 52





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys, so this is my first work regarding the MCU fandom, I really hope I do right by the characters' personalities and I hope y'all like it. Also this is a fic to point out that Steve Rogers is as much human as anyone else and he too bleeds. (he's underrated, fight me) Feedback, comments and kudos are very much appreciated!!

It's been a week since Steve or any other member of the team was sent on a mission. Everyone was preoccupied; first on missions to find the Winter Soldier, and then on helping him settle in the tower and while Bruce and Tony were occupied with the deprogramming. Finally, Bucky was settling in the tower at a good rate, Sam the in-built therapist of the Avengers was gladly helping Bucky with his recovery. So, it was time to get back on the whole enemy-fighting business. SHIELD had the mission ready, supposedly one of the simpler one’s. Ambush the site save the hostages and equipment and walk out. But it wasn’t always that simple where Steve and HYDRA were involved. The warehouse was large, Steve had gone through the blueprints in the Quinjet where he was de-briefing the team and the agents. The warehouse had 3 main entrances and Steve along with Sam and Nat went through the main one. Everything was eerily quiet as if the people there already knew what was about to happen. Nat went forward opening rooms on the ground floor, while Sam went upwards and Steve moved towards the basement. All of a sudden there was a commotion on the coms and all the channels linking the agents with Steve went dead. Steve’s instincts were screaming at him to go back and check on his team when he heard something towards the deeper end of the basement. He kept on calling out names on the coms but didn’t get a response but he trusted Nat and Sam to get the job done and look after themselves so he kept on moving towards the deeper end. Suddenly there was a loud buzz sound and cracks started to appear on the walls. The lights buzzed and crackle and suddenly everything was dark. Steve knew something wasn’t right, there was no explosion to merit the cracks nor did the pillars upholding the building moved. Looking around he saw a few green lights coming from the end of the basement. Moving slowly but with sure feet, the shield held high Steve advanced in the room and he threw open the door with a kick to its pivot. As soon as the door opened, he knew he had miscalculated everything. Bullets flew all around the room aiming towards him and the shield could and his suit could only give only so much of a protection in front of more than a dozen armed Hydra goons. All it takes is half a minute and then all Steve sees is black.

* * *

“Sir you are needed at the landing are immediately”, came JARVIS voice over the loud metallic music in Tony’s workshop.

“Is everything alright J?”

“Not exactly sir, Agent Romanoff and the Falcon just landed from the Quinjet and they're both sustaining injuries.”

“Alright J, inform Bruce I’m going up.”

Nat was lying on the couch in the common area while Sam was nursing a broken arm and impressive scratches all over his arm and torso that was showing through his suit.

But Tony suddenly realized something was missing. More like someone.

Steve. _Steve_.

“C’mon guys move towards medical y’all are looking like shit, and I’m really trying not to lose it but _where the hell is Steve_?”


	2. Chapter 2

Steve woke up with a wince, and looked at his surroundings. Nothing was familiar, everything was dark except a simple light bulb that dangled on the ceiling. He looked around and categorized everything around him, his hands were tied with something resembling metal bands connected with chains above his head but when he tried to pull them apart, they wouldn’t budge. Go figure. He wasn’t lying on the ground as he initially thought, as he tried to get up but groaned when he noticed the ache all over his body. Slowly the events of the previous day came back to him, or was it more than a day, he no idea how long was he out. Adjusting his eyesight, he gave himself a quick look over and saw that he was shirt less but was easily able to see the bullet scars adorning his chest, and scratches from where the bullets only scraped a part of his skin on his arm. They were healing, albeit a bit slowly. Seeing as his only option was to either break out of the chains or wait for his team, he chose the latter one since the chains won't budge even a bit and waited for his captors to make demands. In his heart he knew it won't be easy, after all it was Hydra and if they captured him it could only be for only a few reasons. 

* * *

“What do you mean he was _kidnapped?_ Are you fucking kidding me right now, he’s a super soldier how the hell were they able to take him down so easily?” 

“We don’t know Tony and we didn’t have the time to turn back and look for him, the building’s upper floors had all but crumbled and he was in the basement.” Nat said, her exhaustion and worry reflecting on her face 

“So, you are trying to tell me we don’t even know if he is alive or not, _fuck.”_

“What’s happening here guys and where’s Stevie?” Bucky asked as he entered the common floor, probably coming from the gym if the state of sweat on his arms and the towel slung on his shoulders had anything to say. 

He was met with pin drop silence. “Guys?” 

Tony spoke up, “He isn't with them, _fuck_ guys, why are we sitting like this? JARVIS run facial algorithms in all the areas in Delaware. Hack all CCTV cameras in the state and get me a hit on Steve.” 

“Stark what’s happening?” 

“Bucky, we lost Steve; he was in the basement levels of the base we infiltrated. And the building started crumbling as soon as we got out, Steve was still in the basement levels.” Nat supplied. 

“What? You gotta be kidding me Nat! Shit, what are we gonna do now?” 

“Sir, there is an incoming signal coming from an unknown server, it's a live video, I would recommend you all to come in the living room to view it” JARVIS spoke up cutting Bucky’s freak out. 

Everyone rushed to the communal floor, a shaky video appearing on the huge LED in the lounge. There was a shaky feed on the tv showing Steve chained to the walls, hands hanging in air with something that looked like metal bands, the same bands on his ankles. Tony inhaled a shaky breath and fell on the couch, Bucky started swearing, his right hand trembling and sat on the armchair on the opposite end from the couch. Clint drew out a loud motherfucker and rubbed a hand through his hair down his face, whereas Nat stood stock still in front of the television. Nothing actually was happening at the moment on the feed but the message was quite clear. Time seemed to stretch out every second feeling longer than it actually was. What seemed like hours but actually were minutes someone entered in the room in which Steve was tied up. A girl with short black hair but she had her back toward the camera. Steve never broke eye contact with her, glaring at her with a coldness in his eyes that was even visible even through the trashy quality of the video feed. As soon as she started speaking Tony called out to JARVIS to start a voice recognition algorithm and start tracking possible matches. 

* * *

“Hello Captain, looks like we finally got our hands on you. It's an honor to finally meet you, after all you aren’t an easy catch,” the girl which had entered the room said to Steve in a shrilly voice. 

Steve kept his head high, not breaking the eye contact but not giving her any reaction either. He knew if he showed even a bit of emotion on his face, they’ll start thinking of him as someone who’s easy to rile up. 

“C’mon Captain you should know better than not to play along. I don’t really like to run after someone you know and I will have my way,” the girl said with a leer and caressing a finger across Steve’s cheekbones down to his jawline. 

“Yeah well I don’t really like to play easy with people who tend to kidnap me you know,” Steve said voice sharp as ice. He didn’t anticipate the hard slap that came in answer to his snark, “I won’t like to damage this pretty face of yours now so how bout you keep it shut unless you have to talk about the useful information we need.” 

“What is it that you want?” 

“Oh, look at that right to the point, I like that. You see our request is quite simple, how about you start telling us about Tony Stark.” 


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So my exams ended a few days back and yes i know it took me too long to post this so thankyou for waiting!! just hang on for the ride we will soon reach the happy part ;)

He knew he wasn’t going to give in to his captor’s demands. He just can’t, not only because it was against his moral compass but also because he was practically half in love with Tony. So, giving up all the sensitive information about one of the Avengers, moreover, one of his best friend's was just out of question. So, when he felt the first shock rippling through his chest he really shouldn’t have been surprised. His body spasmed as the current seeped into his bones, and he felt his chest being cut open followed by the smell of burnt skin. He couldn’t help but let out a loud groan. The shock wasn’t very high but he knew it was just a demonstration about what his kidnappers were actually capable of. 

When he opened his eyes again the girl was standing in front of him holding a whip crackling with electricity wearing a smirk on her face. “You know Rogers, I hope you don’t start talking too soon, you’ll take away all of my fun. After all who doesn’t want to see a super soldier break?” When Steve didn’t react at all she continued, “you know dealing with the Winter Soldier was a lot easier. We couldn’t make him bleed, but there was great satisfaction in watching him forget who he used to be.” Steve couldn’t help but bristle at the mention of his brother, he knows all about how deep Hydra's impact was and the great degree of investment the team had to put in to finally break Hydra’s hold from Bucky. As a response Steve only sneered at her, and she gave a snort in return. Steve had to give it to her he was impressed at how she wasn’t backing off even a bit seeing as she had a super soldier in full rage in front of her but then again, they were the ones who kidnapped him and were also able to contain him so they did have the upper hand for the time-being. She came forward and held his face in her hand and whispered in his ears, “Going to make you bleed now  _ Captain,  _ I want to witness how you writhe and cry for help.” 

Steve braced himself for the first crack of whip against his chest but it still hurt as much. He cried out in pain as the crisscross motion of the whip littered his chest in new lacerations. Every crack that led to his skin splitting apart was pure agony. He could feel the cuts going deeper his muscle tissues breaking, ripping apart as blood oozed out. Each and every volt of electricity made his muscles taut and he couldn’t help but scream as the tension cracked open the cuts more. He had no concept of time and with every snap of the whip the urge to lose consciousness became more. He had lost all coherent thought and was finally starting to slip under when his eyes opened with a jolt and he thrashed around trying to catch a breath. Ice cold water flowed through his hair down to his navel and the chill of the water sank in his skin and seeping through the wounds making them sting more. His chest hurt and every single breath was torture. When he finally came back to himself the girl was curling her whip around her hand, “hey handsome, welcome back. I'll let you rest now just  gonna do a bit of decorating and then we’re set to go.” As she was saying this, she drew out a spiked dagger, which had jagged edges on both sides and started to make patterns on Steve’s shoulders down to the middle of his chest. Steve let out a loud scream his voice becoming hoarser as time passed. He was so tired. He felt as if two dozen saw blades had cut through his skin. The wounds were sending sparkles of pain all over his body and his arms hurt from where they were bearing the whole weight of his body. The cuts and jagged skin needed time and rest  to heal but it was clear that he won’t be getting any kind of shut eye anytime soon. He was brought out of his categorizing as sharp white pain shot through his body again and he lost some time trying to get his breathing and heartbeat in sync. When he looked down the knife was embedded beneath the left side of his ribs and blood was seeping out. If the knife stayed in the wound won’t heal as the skin would keep on being cut around the sharp edges of the knife and he’ll keep on losing blood. 

“Now I’m  gonna let you rest for a bit boy; I want the code to the emergency open of Ironman’s armor tomorrow otherwise you’ll have to endure a lot more than today. And I mean it.” She patted his  cheek as she left the room leaving Steve drained and exhausted with no light or any kind of warmth in the room. 

“This is definitely going to be  fun", thought Steve as he shut his eyes trying to grasp some sought of peace for the night.

* * *

Clint held on to his bow with a hard grip enough to turn his knuckles white. As the whip connected with Steve’s skin again everyone inhaled an audible gasp. No one dared to breathe as the floor filled with the sounds of Steve’s agonizing screams. The tension in the room broke as the clattering of the coffee table breaking filled the room. Every head turned towards the sound as they saw Bucky holding the remains of what once was the beloved table in the center of the communal floor. Tony could understand what Bucky felt, he himself was on the verge of blowing every single thing in the vicinity but he needed to stay calm for Steve’s sake. No one said a thing as Tony called out to JARVIS, “J, how’s the tracking going?” 

“Sir I have started the search for Captain Rogers but the signals of the tracker planted in his leg are being jammed. I’m currently trying to break through the signal frequencies and simultaneously trying to take over the jammers in the area to stop the different signal frequencies. Face scans are being run but the results will take time.” 

“Alright J, keep on working and keep me updated but be fast.”

Everyone's attention moved back towards the screen where a jagged dagger was currently being twisted and being inserted beneath the left side of Steve’s chest. A shiver ran down Tony’s spine and he inhaled a shaky breath digging his nails in the palm of his hands to stop himself from hitting someone in the jaw unintentionally. A thunder broke outside the tower and on turning Tony saw Thor’s face being clouded with an expression as grim and full of resentment, and Tony was sure it resembled the expressions on everyone else’s face too. As the girl left Steve bleeding and hurting hands tied Tony was already planning all he could do to make her pay. 


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know im so late, and this chapter is a lot shorter than i intended for it to be, but the next one will be longer i promise. ugh i can't keep up with some specified word limit :p and yes we're coming to the happy parts soon, maybe

It had been more than 50 hours since Steve was taken and all the avengers were still working day and night to find Steve’s location. A match for Steffani Alex was found and Natasha together with Clint was tracking her. The search was taking long because whatever records were present of Steffani were leading to a dead end which meant that she was probably using an alias. Tony trusted Nat implicitly and he knew they would find her soon. Meanwhile everyone, including Nat were still in the tower waiting to get the next live feed from Steve’s captors or hear from Natasha. Until then he was working on increasing the signal frequency of Steve’s tracker while running the face recognition programs and making them better. “Sir the feed is back online,” JARVIS called out to Tony who rushed out of his lab while asking JARVIS to tell the others as well. As everyone rushed to the common room they stopped in their tracks as the sight greeting them was as horrid as it was heart wrenching. Tony let out a strangled sound and he felt his knees going week and arms encircled him to hold him steady. Everyone rushed to sit on the couches and get in front of the screen to see what was happening in the video more clearly but that was not a good idea at all. The sight that greeted them had Tony’s heart clenching and he wanted to tear someone apart. Steve looked to exhausted, his chest was covered with jagged scars and his cheekbone was supporting an impressive bruise. His left eye was swollen shut. As everyone got nearer to the television, they could see that there were tiny tubes embedded at the side of Steve’s abdomen which were depositing a green slimy like substance in his body from a container at the far-right corner of the room. That was new and Tony couldn’t stop the feeling of ice-cold dread that slotted between his ribs even if he wanted. They could be poisoning Steve or worse and Tony was sitting here uselessly watching the love of his life being dragged through torture.

Tony hadn’t even told Steve how much he meant to him. He was supposed to dammit, he was supposed to right on the day Steve was taken from him. Everything was planned, Tony was going to take Steve out to eat at their favorite restaurant, and Italian place that they had discovered while they were out helping Steve become familiar with 21 st century. Tony hadn’t even rented out the whole restaurant because he knew that it made Steve feel uncomfortable and he didn’t want to become a hurdle for other people who might want to visit the same restaurant too. They would order their favorite dishes and talk about everything. Conversation was always easy between them (after they got over the stage where they were practically tearing each other's throats out in an argument). He would let Steve carry on the night on his own pace and then hope for the best. 

But right now, seeing Steve bloody and bruised he couldn’t help but let out a whimper filled with rage and frustration. They all held their breaths when they saw the side door opening and instead of the girl entering the room alone this time there was another man with her. He was middle aged in his late 20s, with blonde hair and was wearing glasses. “J you on it?” called out Tony. “Yes sir.” 

The man walked over to Steve and then nodded towards Steffani. She stepped forward and with a flick of her wrist tased Steve on his neck, right on his jugular vein. Steve woke up with a jolt and a piercing scream which actually confirmed how high the voltage of the current was. As soon as he woke up the man started to speak with an uncomfortable sort of formality,

“My name’s Mike and since you refuse to tell us the disassembling code of the Ironman armor, I'm sorry to say that we might have to up our  _ scientific methods  _ to get out information from you.” He stepped back and Steffani stepped forward with something in her hand which alarmingly looked like equipment needed to perform biopsy. But instead of simply cutting Steve open she started to cut out small pieces of his skin making him bleed and scream loudly. He thrashed around and tried his best to get out of his shackles but Mike turned the dial on the tubes and soon it was as if Steve was paralyzed. He couldn’t move any of his limbs and Tony couldn’t help but throw his phone on the floor is sheer anger meanwhile Bucky let out a growl and Clint held on to Bucky’s arm with a death grip. Bruce had left the room to control himself from turning into the Hulk and Natasha had started saying something in Russian which Tony was quite sure were death threats intermingled with colorful curses all the while Steve’s screams filled up the background.


	5. Chapter 5

Every single muscle in his body ached. His throat was raw and parched due to all the screams he had let out; he was sure if he was to scream one more time his throat will start bleeding from the inside. There were numerous cuts on his body, junctions between bones from where chunks of flesh were cut and taken as samples, skin cut raw due to the electric whiplashes. He was scared, he was so tired, he wanted this torture to end; one thing was sure he wasn’t going to give the code for Tony's armor and these scumbags should know it. He was so exhausted every single breath; his lungs were burning and his head was on the verge of exploding. He was trying to keep his eyes open because he was sure that if he passed out  now, he wasn’t going to wake up soon. 

* * *

The tower had this lingering tension and a haunting aura surrounding it. Everyone was quiet and refused to acknowledge that one of their members was missing and facing torture and they were impossible to even locate where he was taken. Steve was so much a part of their dysfunctional group of family, he was like a dad to all of them even though he refused to acknowledge how important he was. Tony and Natasha were sitting on the sofa while Bucky was pacing the length of the room and Clint sat cross-legged in Natasha’s feet. Thor was with Bruce who knows where. The hulk was surfacing and everyone trusted Thor to handle Bruce when he was this stressed. The last they had seen of Steve was when he lost consciousness and Tony was scared whether Steve will wake up again or not. JARVIS the forever savior spoke up before Tony could spiral into more evocative scenarios in his head. 

“Sir I was able to trace the signals and hack into Captain Rogers’s kidnapper’s system. They're still rerouting their IP location but I'll be soon to pinpoint it, but right now there’s something you should see.”

Relief was evident on everyone’s face and a new live clip started to play on the T.V screen. 

“We need to figure out what to do, he isn’t saying anything. It's unnerving honestly, who thought Captain America is so protective of Tony Stark, that arrogant jerk,” Mike said in a bored manner.

“No are you crazy he is on the brink of falling apart. His eyes are glossed over it’s as if he’s completely numb to the pain because he knows it’s worth protecting Ironman, plain stupidity,” replied Steffani in a non chalant way. 

“Ugh we still need to figure out how to get that code, we don’t exactly have a lot of time, we need to  leave this warehouse as s soon as possible you know we have to move  base before -”

“Sir, I have a location it’s a warehouse located in Russia, approx. 80km radius around the outer borders.”

Everyone stood up and started to suit up before JARVIS even completed his announcement. 

“Everyone to the  Quinjet in 10,” said Tony as his armor enveloped him. He has left Steve too long in the hands of those animals, and he needs to get to him, he has something very important to tell him and he sure as hell is not ready to let Steve go so easily and so soon. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi, i know it's been so long and i'm sorry but i got so caught up. Also i have no idea how to trace signals i'm writing that portion on my knowledge gained from movies and the limited cs i have studied in high school. also i have no idea about borders or the geographical area surrounding Russia so sorry for any mistakes about that as well.


End file.
